Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was born at Ahmedabad in an affluent family of progressive industrialists. He had his early education in a private school. Here atmosphere injected into the young boy the seeds of scientific curiosity, ingenuity and creativity.
From this school he proceeded to Cambridge for his college education and took the tripods degree from St. John’s college in 1940.
When World War II began, he returned home and joined as a research scholar under Sir C. V. Raman at the IISc, Bangalore. He started his work on cosmic rays and built the necessary equipment with which he took measurements. He returned to Cambridge in 1945. In 1947 he was awarded the Ph.D degree
The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) was established in November 1947 in a few rooms in M.G. Science Institute of the Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded by his parents. Subsequently, it got support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Atomic Energy.
Sarabhai established a permanent recording station at Ahmedabad, and subsequently two more, at Kodaikanal (1951) and Trivandrum (1955)
With active support from Homi Bhabha, Sarabhai set up the first Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in the country at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the Arabian Coast, as Thumba is very close to the Equator.
The first rocket with sodium vapour payload was launched on November 21, 1963. It involved tremendous work such as recruitment of personnel, setting up of roads and buildings, communication links, and launch pads. After the inaugural flight, range facilities were expanded.
To implement the space programme, Sarabhai took the following steps during 1961-1966.
In 1965, the UN General Assembly gave recognition to TERLS as an international facility. With the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash, Sarabhai was appointed Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966.
Like Bhabha, Sarabhai wanted the practical application of science to reach the common man. Thus he saw a golden opportunity to harness space science to the development of the country in the fields of communication, meteorology, remote sensing and education.
Sarabhai saw the traditional approach of planning in areas like power systems, or telecommunications based on projection of growth from past experience leads to a dead end.
So he decided on following a hazardous route for developing countries to acquire competence in advance technology for the solution of their particular problems based on technical and economic evaluation of their real resources.
Sarabhai next initiated boldly the space project—and now a reality, with the undertaking of fabrication and launching of an Indian Satellite.
Thus Aryabhata I was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome. This development furthers the indigenous capability for satellite launching from low-orbiting to synchronous levels.
Sarabhai received many awards including Bhatnagar Medal (1962), Padma Bhushan (1966).
Sarabhai passed away in his sleep on December 31,1971. He was truly a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary.
